


Imagine That

by kaynibbler16



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Gen, Mentions of past abuse, Sort of a Drop Dead Fred!AU, a bit of angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-17
Packaged: 2018-12-16 17:50:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,087
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11833890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaynibbler16/pseuds/kaynibbler16
Summary: Imaginary friends are just that-imaginary. They're not real. Just a figment of the imagination. Rose Tyler believed that she had left her imaginary friend in her childhood, but it seems that he's got different ideas.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a sort of Drop Dead Fred AU. Enjoy! :D

“He’s an idiot.”

“No, he is not.” Rose Tyler ignored the voice coming from in front her as she played on her phone.

“You have a horrible taste in men.”

“I do not.”

Rose Tyler had a problem. Well, maybe it was just a quirk. The thing was, she had had an imaginary friend when she was a child that suddenly reappeared in her life after a bad relationship with a man named Jimmy Stone.

He simply called himself the Doctor and he was currently lounging across the seat of the booth where her date had been sitting only moments earlier. He wore a pinstriped suit with a long brown duster that he claimed he had received from Janis Joplin once upon a time. Were you her imaginary friend, too, she’d asked him. He’d scoffed and said, Don’t be ridiculous.

Roe still didn’t understand why he was back in her life again. The last time she’d seen him was right before her tenth birthday when he’d announced that she no longer needed him. She’d cried for days afterwards.

And then, suddenly, he was back. It was right after she’d had a nasty fight with Jimmy where he’d stormed off to find somewhere else to sleep for the night, probably another girl’s place. It wouldn’t be the first time.

She’d just finished crying her eyes out when she felt someone poke her shoulder and she fell off the bed with a scream. After she stumbled to her feet she whirled around to confront the intruder and there he was, wearing that manic smile of his, which faltered as soon as he saw her face. More specifically, the bruises Jimmy gave her that night.

It had been several months since the Doctor had reappeared and Jimmy skipped town with half her savings. Thankfully, Rose kept another account that Jimmy didn’t know about, but it set her back months. She eventually moved back in with her mother.

“Really, Rose? He mentioned his employer no less than seven times in the first five minutes. He’s a git.” The Doctor fiddled with some contraption he pulled from his pocket that resembled a glowing Rubik’s Cube.

Rose sighed as she adjusted the wireless headset in her ear, pretending she was talking to someone on her phone instead of an invisible person. It made her situation only marginally less awkward. “Okay, so he’s kind of full of himself.”

“Kind of?” the Doctor scoffed.

She rolled her eyes at him. “Like you’re one to talk.”

“I’ll have you know that I am perfectly full of myself.”

Rose couldn’t help the giggle that escaped her lips. “Yeah, I guess so.”

He grinned at her.

“Who’re you talking to, Rose?”

Startled by the sudden return of her date, Rose pretended to ‘hang up’ on the person she’d been talking to. “Sorry, an old friend of mine called when you were in the loo.”

“Oh, were you telling them how great your date is going?” he asked her, his smug attitude grating on her nerves.

“I think my eyes just rolled themselves backwards in time,” the Doctor muttered. He was now sitting to her right, his arm draped across the seat behind her.

Rose’s date, a man by the name of Adam, sat down in front of her again as they waited for their food. “Um, actually I was just making plans with her for next weekend.”

“Oh, and what are you two planning to do next weekend?” He leered at her over his glass and Rose had to agree with the Doctor, he was a complete git.

“Oh, just going to see a film,” she lied, hoping he would just let it go. No such luck.

“Really? I could recommend some great movies for you two to see. Really intense stuff. I’m sure it would be a major improvement over the stuff you usually watch.”

“Oh, I just threw up in my mouth a bit.” The Doctor looked a bit green out of the corner of her eye, but she ignored him.

“That’s okay. We’re just going to wing it. So, what about you? Are you going to go back to school?” Rose quickly changed the subject and was actually grateful that Adam enjoyed talking about himself so much.

The date went by far too slowly for her taste. The Doctor was the only bright spot of the evening with his quips about Adam. By the time they finished their meal and had paid for dinner (Adam insisted on a split check), Rose was ready to head home. Adam, on the other hand, felt it was time to take their date to another level.

He kissed her sloppily and Rose had to use every fiber of her restraint to not shove him away. It was time to put an end to this mess of a date.

“Adam, I think we should go our separate ways. I have to work in the morning.”

“Oh come on, we’re just getting to know each other and I want to at least get to know you in the biblical sense before the end of the night.”

Okay, that was enough. “You know what? I don’t think we’re right for each other, Adam.”

Adam, it seemed, was not happy about this turn of events as he sneered at her. “You’re turning me down? I’m probably the best a chav like you will ever have! The only reason I went out with you tonight was for a quick shag and you won’t even give me that! You won’t find anyone near as good as me!”

The Doctor’s eyes narrowed dangerously at Adam as he took a step in front of Rose. “I’m going to knock him on his arse if he says another word.”

Rose ignored him as she glared up at Adam. “I doubt that. Goodbye, Adam.”

With a snarl, Adam roughly grabbed her arm and shoved her against the wall of the alley next to the restaurant. “Oh no, we’re not done here–”

But that was all he got out before he was knocked to the ground, the Doctor standing menacingly over him. Adam was wildly searching around him, looking for the culprit who knocked him over. “What the hell?!”

Rose gaped at the Doctor, flabbergasted by the turn of events. How had he just done that?! He wasn’t even real!

Adam, spooked, took off without looking back.

“Bloody wanker,” the Doctor muttered.

Rose stared at him. “Doctor, what…what just happened?! How did you…how?!”

He sighed as he grabbed her hand, leading her away from the restaurant. “It’s complicated. Let’s just say I’m going to be in a bit of trouble after this, but it was necessary.”

“What do you mean? You’re not real, Doctor. You’re just some figment of my imagination.”

The Doctor pulled her into a hidden alcove, his expression unreadable. “The imagination is powerful thing, Rose. Yours in particular.”

“What do you mean?”

He sighed. “Rose, there are people with the ability to see things that others cannot. You are one of those people.”

“I don’t understand,” she whispered as his arms encircled her waist, his chin resting on her shoulder.

“I know and I’m sorry, but that’s all I can tell you for now.” He pulled away and took her face in his hands, his thumbs caressing her cheekbones. “However, just know that I will protect you from now on. I failed you with Jimmy, but I won’t make that mistake again.”

Rose listened numbly as her perception of reality seemed to shift in the last few moments. The Doctor wasn’t just in her mind. He was real. She didn’t know what to say.

The Doctor sensed her distress and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’s so sorry, Rose. You were not supposed to find out. Come on, why don’t we go home.”

Without another word, the Doctor slipped his hand into hers and led her home.


	2. Chapter 2

“I remember when you used to wake me up by tickling my toes when I was sleeping. Drove me mad.” Rose lounged on her bed next to the Doctor, who was fiddling with his sonic screwdriver. “Are there others like you?”

He tensed. “Rose, you know I can’t reveal any more compromising information.”

“Why not? Are there laws against it?” she asked.

“Yes,” he muttered. “So you can stop asking.”

Rose grinned mischievously. “So, if there are laws against telling me any ‘compromising information’ then that means there had to be people who made those laws.”

The Doctor’s eyes widened in alarm as he tried to backtrack. “No, no, I didn’t say that–Rose, that’s not what I meant–just listen–”

“There are others out there that are like you,” she said with surety.

He huffed and jumped off her bed, stalking over to the window to glare at random passersby. “Oh yes, I forget how clever you are sometimes. Really should have seen that one coming.”

Rose giggled. “Not my fault you’re going senile.”

“Senile?!” The Doctor spun around to stare at her with incredulity. “I’m nowhere near old enough to be going senile! Hell, I’m in my prime! A positively strapping example of a Time Lord in peak condition!”

“Time Lord, huh?”

He swore loudly.

“So, you’re the epitome of a virile Time Lord, is that right?” Rose asked, possibly with a hint of flirtation but she’d never admit to it. “How old does that make you, then? Two, maybe three thousand years old?”

He glared at her and crossed his arms. “Not this time, Rose Tyler. I’m onto you.”

“I’ll get it out of you. I always do.”

The Doctor muttered something under his breath about devious blondes, but she just ignored him. She snuggled into her pillows as she watched him take a seat near the window, pulling out the glowing Rubik’s Cube from a few days earlier. He was murmured to himself as he flipped the sides over and over again.

It had been a few days since she learned that the Doctor wasn’t as imaginary as she first believed. When she was younger she remembered asking him why no one could see him and he’d simply told her that the rest of the world was blind to what was happening right in front of them. She hadn’t thought much else of it at the time, but now it was starting to make more sense. It was one of the few things about the Doctor that made any sense.

Rose snickered at her own joke.

The Doctor looked up at the sound. “What? What are you laughing about?”

“You’re ridiculous, you know. Completely mad.”

He actually looked offended. “What’s wrong with that.”

“Never said there was anything wrong with it. Just making an observation.”

He sniffed. “Well, two can play at that game. I happen to know that you are easily swayed by chips.”

“Who isn’t?”

He nodded. “How about that I know for a fact that you still sleep with Mr. Cuddlesworth every night, despite the fact that you told your mother you threw him out years ago.”

Rose gasped in mock offense. “Oh, now that is going too far, sir. Downright despicable, you are.”

He laughed. “Serves you right, Ms. Tyler.”

Rose hopped out of bed and sidled over to the Doctor, plopping down next to him on the floor. “Yeah, well, I know that you are very ticklish right here!” She snuck her hand under his jacket and attacked his right flank. He gasped and tried to maneuver away from her hand, but Rose anticipated him and doubled her assault.

Somehow, in the midst of their struggle, Rose ended up straddling the Doctor. They both froze, stunned by their current predicament. It was only when the Doctor coughed awkwardly that Rose attempted to climb off of him, but she stood up too fast and lost her footing. With a grunt, she landed flush on top of him, her forehead coming into painful contact with his chin.

Neither breathed for a long moment. Rose had never been this close to the Doctor before. Sure, they hugged all the time but this–this as new. Double heart beats dueled against her chest almost as if the Doctor had two hearts.

And then Rose hit the ground with a painful thud as the Doctor disappeared from underneath her. No warning, just gone. Blinked out of existence.

She sat up with a groan. “Git.”

The Doctor didn’t show his face again until two days later and acted as if nothing had ever happened.


End file.
